Wednesday November 19 2008
Picture: some ships I made for AI, Tyranids. I’m playing a game this Saturday.
The base is only temporary. They will have regular AI bases when done.
For some reason, the last few nights I’ve arrived home, I am absolutely tired; eyelids heavy and ready to collapse on the couch. Strange.
I took G for a walk yesterday morning. He was riding on my shoulders. It was like carrying around a sack of cement and it whacked out my back. Ouch. But I think it’s feeling better now.
I got up bright and early this morning and started cracking on emails, as usual. Sarah and I got a LOT done today. I’ve got a morning show AND another video still to post.
I am beat. I’m going to bed. I had better get up early tomorrow to catch up.
Naomi Klein Dishes it Out
Naomi can expound financial issues to me any day.
Monday November 17 2008 Hit the Ground Running
Picture: a Reptus Warrior by Reaper miniatures. Check out his shield.
I was up bright an early, with a long race ahead. First things first, I constructed an alternate back carapace to the Tyranid Bio-Titan. The first one was too flat and looked like a horse-shoe crab. You can’t see the new one yet, but will likely see it all finished in about a week. I am please with how it turned out, that was a brain-child long in gestation.
I also managed to finished to repeater bolt throwers for my Ice Elves army, so I’m not ready to take all comers in Warhammer Fantasy. It’s high time to have a game!
Joseph is out this week (but still working on the second installment of Wyches of Thoth).
Sarah and I tag-teamed the various administrative tasks down at the studio, getting out a half-dozen projects or so, and getting Payroll ready for disbursal.
I am still booking projects for December, and running the various specials outlined below.
Once home, I was surrounded by my angelic snooches. G wants nothing more than to ride around on my shoulders, even in the house. He lays his sweet head down on my hair like a pillow.
A friend of Tamies came by tonight, her daughter is Kay’s age. We sat around and shot the bull about dating, marriage, and what makes men tick.
For politics, I am going to engage in a new excercise and entertain the possibility that all is well and that the gov, is doing a good job. Look forward to that.
Right now, I am about to settle in with the good woman to watch an episode of Heroes. Sweet.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to all our clients. Each one is precious, I have absolutely not illusions: we are lucky to be in business.
A Founding Father Reincarnated in Our Day
“First, consider the effects of inflation by which we mean the Fed’s increase in the supply of money, on the value of the dollar. By increasing the supply of money, the Federal Reserve lowers the value of every dollar that already exists. If the supply of Mickey Mantle baseball cards were suddenly to increase a million fold, each individual card would become almost valueless. The same principle applies to money: the more the Fed creates the less value each individual monetary unit possesses. When the money supply is increased, prices rise—with each new dollar now worth less than before…
“All right, some may say, prices may indeed rise, but so do wages and salaries, and therefore inflation causes no real problems on net. This misconception overlooks one of the most insidious and immoral effects of inflation: its redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle class to the politically well connected. The price increases that take place as a result of inflation do not occur all at once and to the same degree. Those who receive the new money first receive it before the prices have yet risen. They enjoy a windfall. Meanwhile, as they spend the new money, and the next wave of recipients spend it, and so on, prices begin to rise throughout the economy—well before the new money has trickled down to most people. The average person is now paying higher prices while still earning his old income, which has not yet been adjusted to account for the higher money supply. By the time the new money has made its way throughout the economy, average people have all this time been paying higher prices, and only now can begin to break even. The enrichment of the politically well connected—In other words those who get the newly created money first: government contractors, big banks and the like—comes at the direct expense of everyone else. These are known as the distribution effects, or Cantillon effects, of inflation, after economist Richard Cantillon. The average person is silently robbed through this invisible means and usually doesn’t’ understand what exactly is happening to him. And almost no one in the political establishment has an incentive to tell him.
“When the value of Americans’ savings is deliberately eroded through inflation, which is a tax, albeit a hidden one. I call it the inflation tax, a tax that is all the more insidious for being so underhanded: most Americans have no idea what causes it or why their standard of living is going down. Meanwhile, government and its favored constituencies receive their ill-gotten loot. The racket is safe as long as no one figures out what is going on.
— Ron Paul, “The Revolution” pages 143-144
Saturday November 15 2008 Deep Space
Rhinodon. One of many items I have on the block now.
The cage door opened, but we weren’t ready to venture out. Maybe Ron Paul will run again in 2012.
Anyhoo. Aren’t you tired of my constant jib-jabbing about politics? Yeah, me too.
We are currently booking projects for December. I still have those specials running (see below). If you are flexible on composition and license, we can be flexible on price.
My thoughtful daughter likes to come out and putter around in the garage while I’m making terrain (which I was for most of today– I’ve got a Daemonhunters display board and a TON of tyranid hive ship terrain cooking). She comes up with most insightful sayings, like this one:
Sometimes, when you make a mistake, it gives you new ideas.
It was a crisp autumn day, with highs in the mid 50s, good terrain-making weather. Well, not really, I was freezing my buns off as the sun sank down and the temperature dropped into the 30s. My wife made a lunch of grilled chees sandwiches with tomato soup.
I am possibly going to phase out terrain-making from BTP’s repertoire. It almost invariably brings heartache of some kind.
I also have ready to paint the last round of the studio Dark Elves:
10x Black Guard
10x Dark Riders
2x Repeater Bolt Throwers
I’ll see how much of an in-road I can make on those.
I had hoped to finish the construction of the tyranid hive ship terrain, but didn’t quite make it. I gave up really, just so tired. I then took the kids to Macey’s to pick up some milk. Macey’s is closed on Sundays so Saturday is always really busy, it’s almost like a town market. All are in high spirits, and I usually see people I know there. I carried G. on my shoulders where he is on top of the world, like a little prince. When he gets tired I can feel him lay his cherubic face on my head. As always, I ended up picking up like ten things besides milk.
That little trip gave my ultra-pregnant wife some much-needed rest. She’s plowing through the Twilight series of books, pretty much all she’s good for these days, but like we say; “pregnant lady gets a pass.” She is highly uncomfortable, and I try to accomodate as much as possible.
We are happy in our little lair. I feel a deep and abiding sense of peace. I am on a quest to find equilibrium, to divest myself of material things, to be a wise steward, to live well within my means, and to serve others.
Imperial Guard Rumors
The studio imperial guard army is for sale by individual model
Purchasing information here.
[I lifted this from http://www.warseer.com/ My own comments to follow]
Army wide special rule: I think it’s called Platoon Drill or something like that. Basically, units from the same platoon may ignore intervening squads when shooting. So enemy units targeted in this way do not receive the 4+ save. Apparently this only works if the Platoon command squad is alive and within 12” of the rest of the platoon. I’ve been told that this is just one of the abilities guard Platoons may get, but only as long as the chain of command is intact (whatever that means). So loosing your HQ Command Squad may be a really bad thing.
Doctrines are for sure gone (I think we all knew this), but have been replaced by more mutable platoons. Instead of Armoured fist squads you can buy Chimeras for a whole platoon. Or buy the whole platoon grav-chutes to give them deep strike, or drop the heavy weapons from squads and give the platoon Scout. Veteran squads become upgrades to platoons (i.e. they are not elites anymore).
Apparently infantry platoons let you attach certain types of support vehicles to them(kinda like back in second edition). Things like sentinels, hellhounds and demolishers can be attached to platoons. They still take up a FOC spot, but become part of the platoon and so will benefit from the Platoon Drill rule.
The Leman Russ can be bought as a squadron so you can get 3 for a single FOC. They can not be attached to platoons however.
Sniper Squads can now infiltrate, get stealth, range finders and all models in the squad have sniper rifles (and BS 4!).
Like the Land Raider, a new plastic sprue for the Leman Russ has been made that will allow plastic demolishers and a 3rd variant (my money is on the Exterminator).
The Baneblade in NOT in the new codex. It just doesn’t work (i.e. overpowered) in games that are not Apocalypse in size.
However Stormtrooper squads can now take Valkyries as transports. Both will be getting a plastic kit. Valkyries follow the rules for skimmers I’ve been told. Again, they want to keep flyers and super heavies out of “normal games” but give people the ability to use them with all the special rules in Apocalypse and Planet-strike (if the ever get around to that.)
This last one makes me wonder what’s they are doing, but apparently there is a new HQ in the book; Inquisitor and Retinue much like the elites from the current Daemon Hunters/Witch Hunters books.
My Comments
Assuming this is all accurate…
First, as I predicted, more tanks will be allowed, and high time in my book. I had an IG army with like seven heavy support options, but could only take three at a time. So sad.
I would be glad to see models from another range, ie Inquisition, in other lists. The more the merrier.
I didn’t see anything about Storm Troopers as troops choice, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was in there. And a plastic kit for them. This is along the lines of new Core-type plastics with each new army update.
I am sorry to see doctrines go away. More customization is better. Of course, this is being accompanied by streamlining and expanding choices overall in new army lists, so that is a step in the right direction.
Better Dead than Red (Tau)
This article blew my mind. Neatly written.
Friday November 14 2008 Possibilidoom
Hey all. The big news today is that we’re working on a HUGE terrain set– a Tyranid hive ship terrain set. It’s turning out really keen. More to come on that.
The Post Office has been closed on account of a massive computer crash. Packages are going out tomorrow from another city. Sorry for the delay.
I managed to paint up a unit of Dark Riders for my game with Mike Dunn tomorrow (which might not happen– I have a ton of terrain to do still). Oh, and a sorceress. Her cloak was a custom build by Brigh and made out of a translucent material, which proberty I tried to preserve.
I am on the hunt for Aeronautica Imperialis bases. Does anyone have any for trade of purchase.
My favorite 40k army is Eldar.
Reader Feedback on "Pure Transaction"
After reading you “Pure Transaction” blog entry I have one question and one Observation:
Question: Would you flesh out your “banks are not helpful” comment?
I think it relates to the barter idea but I’m not sure.
Long Winded Observation: :^)
Pure barter is a great idea, theoretically. But it requires that all people
accept the notion that whoever approaches them for whatever services they provide are of some direct or indirect benefit to them. That requires an understanding of basic economics that must have been instilled at a very early age. If I agree to repair my neighbors computer or fix his sons car, or put a new roof on the guys house that overheard a converastion I was having about roofs, I am expecting that I can also get what I need from someone else in the same manner. It is a fantastic idea and one I have fantasized about from time to time. (Heinlein wrote a novel I read when I was in my 20’s that described this world beautifully, just can’t remember the title). BUT, we are so entrenched in the idea of money as a measure of work/value that it is unlikely in the extreme to happen. The barter systems that I’ve seen so far all are a Kind of a tax evasion scheme, (services are still measured in any variant of ‘barter dollars’, that may as well be cash). They must do this because the are not wide spread and just cannot live in a monetary environment.
The Socialist ideal is that ultimatly everyone works at thier absolute best for the betterment of everyone around them. (a pipe dream for all except maybe ants and bees).
Pure barter would fall under the far right mentality. It is to a lesser extent unlikely, but none the less improbable, simply because people would need to think more about what the value is of themselves, and that of society to them, in order to comprehend the benefit. It is far easier to focus on the notion of money. Additionally those who wish to aquire power would find it far more difficult to do so.
I have recently, grudginly accepted the possiblilty of, the idea that people are becoming ‘sheep like’. They do very little thinking about how the world works beyond the Movie they want to see, or the Dinner they want to eat, or the car they want to drive, or how taxing the rich will help them. This mentality is what permits the few to control the many and introduce monetary measures in the first place. Reagan was the exception to this, and is the reason why I resist fully accepting the ‘Sheep like’ theory. I still hold onto my faith in peoples reasoning ability.
Money is not necessarily a problem, but it does put the onus on all of us to be more aware of what those in governement are doing and act accordingly.
My personal political bent is Libertarian. So I spend alot of time being frustrated. :^)
SP
My response:
Thank you.
I don’t think barter is practical for everything. But more of it would be better I think. And definitely getting away from Banks. At least for the time being, it’s not required to carry any sort of debt. Still puzzling through it.
Banks take more out of the system than they put in. A lot more. I believe they thrive on subterfuge and have carefully and methodically indoctrinated the general populace with poisonous thinking. “Without us the economy would grind to a halt… doom! Boo!” So, if 200 colonists land on a new world, they can’t get anything done unless there is a Banker in there, they would have us believe.
Oddly, I’m living in the socialist dream. It’s real for me. A quaint Mormon neighborhood where no one is left behind. Women who have given birth have meals delivered. Yards are unfenced and create communal parks. People in the three block radius are carefully and rigorously taken care of. The HUGE difference, which must never be forgotten is that it is VOLUNTARY. I gladly give 10% of my income plus fast offering. It is a delight. But I don’t have to do it.
I am suspicious of anything that is done by force. If Social Security is so damn great, then why not make it voluntary? All these crap-tastically managed government schemes (yes, pejorative) are all just involuntary insurance programs. More to come on that.
More Reader comments:
Thank you for your time. I’ve always enjoyed these types of dicussions, (My wife calls them arguments. She rolls her eyes and sometimes kicks me under the table whenever I engage in them. :^) ).
I agree that banks are unecessary on a small scale. However, when a monitary based society reaches a certain critical mass it become almost a requirement. What if you needed to pay someone you did not know through the mail, or to complicate matters through electronic transfers?. You need some sort of central store to keep your money in to facilitate these things. Checks and EFT’s need to be trusted in some way,… so these services are provided for in the form of banks. Then there is the matter of loans to do whatever it is you need more money for that you do not have. Our economy is based on currency, so the transfer and accounting for it are necessary. The Barter system removes all of this, but we would necessarily need to drop the whole idea of currency.
Banks are supposed to be private organisations, so in a free market, you can take your money to another bank if you don’t like the current one,… it keeps people honest. But introduce an element into the mix that is all but immune to our wishes, and you now have a chance for that element to do what I think you describe. Too much reporting to said element about what we are all doing with our money, (a supremely personal thing given what money is and is used for), and we sacrifice liberty and personal freedom, subordinating ourselves to its will. This information is nobodys business but ours and those that we trust with that information. If banks were treated like the business’s they are, abuses of the trust they enjoy would occur no more often that any other business. Those abuses could be easily handled in a healty society.
I recall a story that was recently related, (I thinks it was Rush Limbaugh), about the early days of the colonists. They originally tried a Socialist type of society where all people were supposed to work collectively, for the good of all. So they stored all of the food in common stores that all could take from. Housing and other needs were collectively build and maintained, or stored for all. But it soon became apparent that there were an unacceptable number who did not pull thier weight. They scrapped the Socialist system in favor of a more capitolist one, (Capitolist is not quite right, but the actual name I want escapes me at the moment). Each person or family was given land that was thier personal property, that they could do with what they wish to produce what they needed for themselves. This was a better system that rewarded productive participation and obviously punished laziness. I am completely certain people still willingly gave food, help and support to those in need. BUT, people could still directly appreciate the fruits of thier labor for themseleves. Work harder and they live better. So far as I know, money and banks were completely unecessary.
They still, however, lived in a currency based society on a global level. If they needed/wanted goods and services from foreign countries, it was required to have thier currencies. So I suppose it was inevitable that our fledgling union would have developed the first bank locally to establish our worth in the global market and inevitably move our society in a similiar direction.
With reguard to your community, I think it is more the Capitolist system that the Socialist one, and is an admirable one to boot!.
I don’t know if you are familiar with the “Free State Project”, www.freestateproject.org . But essentially they are trying to gather together 20,000 liberty minded and politically active people together in one state that can sway that state to become more in line with what our founding fathers envisioned. This is an encouraging endeavour along the lines of what we have been discussing.
Thought Soup
“Come on you apes, you wanna live forever?”
First off, I go off quite a bit about delicate topics. I am only a fellow-journeyer. I am very much in the formulative process, at least with politics.. If you have something to say, I am open to hearing other views, and may very well post them on the blog. If you are courteous and thoughtful, I would love to hear it.
About a year ago, I decided to make almost anything an open topic on this blog. I knew this would alienate some people, but I decided that I really didn’t care. I’m going somewhere with this. What’s the point of owning a business if it’s not personally fulfilling. I found myself coming to work and dreading it. Stupid, huh? So, I re-tooled the operation. Smaller and simpler.
Life is too short. Follow your dreams.
I’ve been expanding on that idea recently. I realized that I really don’t want any assets. In business I have given away the idea of Empire. And in my personal life I have decided that I want to divest myself of almost all assets. I don’t want to own anything substantive. I will be perfectly happy to drive a used putt-putt car.
I call it “The Happy Peasant”. Only the Will of God could make me change my mind. Owning material things is a burden. I do think, though, that sometimes people can use wealth as a way to bless the lives of their fellow man. But for me, I think I’m going to figure out how to live with security, frugality and peace. What is the minimum needed for that?
I have a good marriage and three (soon to be four) lovely children. I have a sure testimony of the goodness and reality of Diety. I know that God lives. If I die, I get to be with HIM, and if it is His will, I will stay and perform any duty that is asked of me. And I care not for my own life. Other than that, just need food, shelter, and fuel. I think I’m golden.
The problem with owning things is that the sharks start circling. I won’t belabour the Reader with the list of non-producers in society who have managed somehow to affix themselves like barb-toothed ticks to the life and labor of others.
I started thinking about the times I was happiest in life, and I realized they were proportionately INVERSE to how much money I had. For example: when I was 13 and we lived in Ashland we had an enormous black walnut tree out front. I climbed up there and nailed in a board as a backrest in the crook of a tall branch, nailed in a small box to keep my penny candy in, and spent many an afternoon just reading books. So simple.
As an adult, I experienced complete Peace in my Soul as a missionary. All my possessions fit into two suitcases.
Life as a young married man was idyllic even though we ate on the coffee table in our little apartment.
Less things more life.
Credit Cards are evil. And I don’t say that with any reservation. I think that Usury is a blight on humanity. Life doesnt’ take Visa. Visa takes away life.
The fruits of your labor is the manifestation of your life.
So, I’m in the process of simplifying. A lot. First order of business is to get rid of debts. This dovetails nicely with the process of divesting myself of material goods. Which reminds me: I put up more new stuff for sale:
My new retirement plan: have a massive coronary at age 65. Hopefully I can finish my mortal mission by that time. The human body was designed to run out. Death is part of the journey.